One Perfect Rose
by vivigirl72000
Summary: At the Temple of Ancients Aeris reflects her chance encounter with Sephiroth years ago. Vignette.


Notes: Wow, I'm actually bothering to write notes…. weird. This is a little idea that came to me at a very inconvenient time (3 am at night) and refused to let me sleep so…. I just HAD to write it. It's told from Aeris' POV and third AeriSeph I've tried writing. And it sucks. Very. 

_ " So cold, I'm always by your side."_

 So you are Sephiroth. Since that day your presence has lingered near me, first soft like the silken touch of the possibility of new love until it burrowed deeper and began to eat me from inside, feeding on my young hopes and dreams. A secret I kept hidden from everybody I knew, every time Cloud mentioned your name in anger I didn't react or tell. Was it from shame? Or maybe a way to keep the moment untouched by the harsh words that would fall from his lips and the scathing looks of those blue eyes, to keep it like a dream.  Yet the small, fragile hope I had left in you survived, until now.

_ " Come. Splendid."_

 Do you remember me, Sephiroth? Or am I another traitor you passed on your blind path until your Mother found you? Even if she hadn't claimed you would you remember me, I wonder? One chance encounter is not something you would treasure.

  I was walking along the plate, not a place I was used to. We had gotten desperate and I was forced to sell up there in the hope that the rich would buy more. The plan failed of course; why'd they buy these buds that wilted so easily when the artificial kind could outlast the poor things. But this day I'd managed to sell all apart from one, a white rose tinged with crimson. The rain had poured down that night, reducing the satin petals to limp rubber but it retained its beauty even so. A child of the earth it outshone the carefully tailored plastic sort so I faithfully continued.

   And then you came, like a dark cloud amongst the rain that fogged my sight and strode towards me. _You_ bought that one rose, _you_ gave me the money to come back to my warm and dry home, an act that may have been meaningless to you but stayed with me. And then it was _you_ that gave me my first kiss, a brief touch on the cheek that meant more to me than all the embraces with Zack before he left.

 But like everything else it ended as soon as it had begun. A fellow employee called your name and you left me standing in the rain without a single goodbye. _Sephiroth_. I said the name a million times underneath my breath but each time I would blush a little and my eyes would shine brighter. My mother thought it was Zack or maybe Tseng. Never did she realise, even when I heard about your death on the radio I kept it from her and instead let myself be destroyed on the inside.

 "At that which adds to the knowledge of... I am becoming one with the Planet. ...Mother...it's almost time. Soon...we will become one."

 And what do I feel now when I look at you? No love or adoration just a dull ache with in me, disappointment. As if just at the sight of me you would come to your senses and stop your madness. But I see you're too far gone for me to help you, the light in your eyes that first attracted me to you has gone, blocked by the vines of your own madness. No human remain is left in you.

   But the question remains unanswered; do I love you? No, I'm not the young girl you met all those years ago. I've realised that you never loved me, you never noticed me. That perfect rose was probably thrown into a gutter and left with the rest of the waste. The pure white no longer remains and the silk petals greasy with slime. It would follow the trail down to the slums, smothered by filth but one spot of crimson would be visible, eventually it would rot and soon no traces of it would be found. Like our.... no my love for you.

  Thank you Sephiroth, you've made me realise that we never were meant to be. That no matter how I try to change you to suit my image of you all those years ago it would never work. There are too many forces driving us apart, too many barriers to overcome. And perhaps you wouldn't want to try in the first place. These thoughts I've wanted to show you all these years were never meant to be, these emotions are irreverent. I'll just do my duty, let you be killed by Cloud and forget all about you. What you would've done in my place.

 But like that rose the opportunity was always there, love could've have blossomed.


End file.
